2019 November Dividend Summary

It has been a bit quite on the investing front as of late for the PIV portfolio.  As I have mentioned before, activity for the portfolio, particularly that of buying equity shares, has not been as frequent as I had envisioned at the beginning of the year, primarily due to valuations that on the whole appear to rather expensive despite many believing such premiums are justified given the historically low bond yields that are often seen as the alternative investment to equities.  In any event, dividends continued to trickle in during November, below is the latest summary and YoY comparison.

2019 October Dividend Summary

Market has been on a bit of a tear lately hitting new records highs in the past week.  Many of the stocks that I had been hoping to build as they hung out near their 52 week lows have seen a jump in their valuations along with the rest of the market as a whole.  Stocks like CVS, CAH, MMM and many of the banks recovered nicely and from a strictly valuation perspective, and may have plenty of more room to run in the near term.  As much as I hate to admit it, it is sometimes difficult to average up even when the current valuation of a company, although higher than what my current cost basis may be, is still below what I believe is a rough estimate of the company's intrinsic value.  CVS and DAL are probably both good examples of scenario as it relates to the PIV portfolio.  In any event, dividends continue roll in and cash in the PIV accounts is building much faster than I am choosing to invest in recent months.  See below for October's dividend summary.

Recent Buy - Goldman Sachs (GS) and 3M Inc (MMM)

Recent buys this month include include one purchases that added a new position to the portfolio, namely, Goldman Sachs.  See below for details on each of the recent purchases.

2019 September Dividend Summary

The end of the year is quickly approaching and the local weather seems to be changing just as fast.  The rate at which the weather declined from the low 90s just a few weeks ago to now averaging highs from mid 50s to low 60s this week is a bit of surprise (with the lows dropping to near freezing during the nights).  Thankfully the decline in the temps has no bearing on my portfolio value or dividend income. For the first 9 months of the year, the PIV portfolio has experienced a nearly 25% dividend income increase compared to the same period in the prior and I anticipate the portfolio will end the year at about the same rate.  Below is the monthly dividend summary for September 2019.

2019 August Dividend Summary

Here is August's dividend summary.  Life has been busy as of late and time seems to be flying by a little bit faster in recent weeks than it typically does - no matter - dividends keep rolling in.  At the start of the year I thought I just may hit the 5 digit mark for dividend this year - $10,000+, however, it doesn't look like that will happen.  The anticipated dividend growth alone would not be sufficient to meet that mark and I knew a decent amount of capital would be needed to get close, but purchases this year have much few and far between compared to previous years.  Without further ado, the August dividend summary is presented below which reflects a favorable YoY dividend income change of +28.2%.

Recent Buy - 3M (MMM), Cardinal Health (CAH), and DOW Inc (DOW)

Well, it has been nearly 3 months since I last purchased shares of any stock.  With the recent political shenanigans surrounding trade and the Fed's anticipated actions the markets have seen some greater than usual volatility.  Today was no exception as such, seized the opportunity add to some existing position in addition to a purchase I made earlier this week which resulted in a new position to the portfolio.

2019 July Dividend Summary

Another month is in the books.  For the past few months, these dividend income posts have been the only blog updates since my buy or sell activity has been nearly non-existent, but not for lack of capital.  Available cash for investing has been growing at a normal pace, however, I've been exercising some caution as I believe better opportunities will present themselves, who knows, perhaps we'll see a repeat of Q4 volatility like we did late in 2018, I would love it.  In any event, one thing that has been constant this year, despite my portfolio transactions having been less frequent than I had anticipated, is the continuing climb in YoY dividend income.  See the summary below.

2019 June Dividend Summary

The first half of 2019 is a wrap.  Overall I'm pleased with the portfolio's start to the new year and the YTD dividend income YoY performance.  See below for the details and some statistics for the mid-year review.

2019 May Dividend Summary

Nearly half way through 2019 and the dividend income is adding up nicely and is being reinvested almost as quickly as it is deposited into the investment accounts in an attempt to take advantage of relatively low valuations of particular securities with the hope of enhancing the compounding effect over the long term.  Recent examples of such investments include BAYRY, CVS, and CAH.  Each of these companies has its near term challenges such as legal battles, balance sheet leverage, and/or regulatory concerns.  However, despite these challenges each offers a compelling valuation backed up by a very generous free cash flow yield and attractive corresponding dividend yields to boot, which patient investors can collect as they wait for business to adjust and respond to the near term headwinds.  Recent operating cash flow yields for the aforementioned stocks equate to 16.6%, 11.8%, and 21.1%, respectively.  In regards to BAYRY, May was the first time the portfolio has collected a dividend from the company as it only distributes a dividend once a year.  Take a look at the summary below for a breakout of the dividend income received in May.

Recent Buy - DOW Inc (DOW)

I've been cautiously watching the market over the past several weeks reading up on various stocks as there always seems to be at a least a handful appealing valuations hiding in plain sight.  One franchise that has caught my attention in recent weeks has been DOW Inc. (DOW).  This company was recently spun off from  DowDupont (DWDP) conglomerate that merged a few years back which disclosed the intent of eventually dividing the combined company into three separate publicly traded companies.  The material science division of DowDupont was the first to be spun-off, effective April 1, 2019, and is now known as the "new" DOW Inc. See below for details of the purchase along with some additional metrics and information obtained from the 2018 investor day.

2019 April Dividend Summary

Better late than never as they say.  Life has been super busy both professionally and on a personal level as it typically is this time of year for me.  I have multiple kids playing baseball and a daughter involved in dance so once I am done with work for the day I am usually dashing off to one more activities each evening. However, despite these times, the one great thing about passive income is that my invested capital keeps working with very little, if any involvement, from myself day to day.  At most, I reinvest the passive income and allocate new capital to where I perceive the greatest value to be a few times each month.  Below is the April dividend summary which reflects a favorable increase in YoY dividend income despite an ad hoc transaction that impacted the portfolio's income in April.  See below for further details.

Portfolio Impact of the DIS and FOXA Transaction

In March, the Disney (DIS) and Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA) transaction was completed.  Over a year ago, Disney agreed to purchase a portions of FOXA assets at a value of $71.3B.  This post is published to record the impact on the portfolio as well as my subsequent allocation between my accounts.  Below are the details of these transactions.

Recent Buy - Wells Fargo & Co (WFC)

I started a position in WFC a few years back and have experienced very little total return at this point.  As is well known, the company has been in the headlines for unfavorable reasons that past couple of years and as a result has been the favorite target of a handful of politicians.  The most recent CEO, Tim Sloan, resigned a few short weeks ago and so the company is currently conducting a search for his replacement.  The vacant CEO position combined with the revised guidance the company outlined with the recent quarterly report is of course weighing stock valuation. Despite these headwinds, I believe the company is attractively valued for the long term and so I decided to increase my position.  See below for the details of the purchase.

2019 March Dividend Summary

The first quarter of 2019 is a wrap.  Overall I'm pleased with the portfolio's start to the new year and the YTD dividend income YoY performance looking really good for Q1 which of course is substantially driven by the March results since many companies pay their dividend in the last month of the quarter.  See below for the details.

Recent Buy - CVS Health Corp (CVS) and Cardinal Health, Inc (CAH)

Both of these stocks are roughly 5% below my cost basis and neither position is a very large portion of my portfolio at the moment.  Both CVS and CAH decline nearly 4% on the day following the announcement of Walgreen Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) Q2 results pre-market which weighed heavily on much of the healthcare sector, including CVS and CAH.  See below for the details of both purchases.

Recent Buy - CVS Health Corp (CVS)

While waiting the span of several weeks after the first of the year, I recently made another purchase within a span of week from the first purchase in 2019.  This most recent purchase is a new position for the portfolio, CVS Health.

Recent Buy - Bayer AG (BAYRY)

I've finally made my first purchase of the year, last week, on the 81st day of 2019.  I certainly did not anticipate waiting this long.  The rapid rebound in the overall market's valuation during this first quarter of the year I think took many by surprise and I was certainly hoping to add to positions at much more attractive valuations on the whole than can currently be found.  Even BAYRY has been begun creeping back up to the low $20's in recent weeks but that came to a halt when additional verdicts against the company came to light in recent weeks which is playing a part in the stock now retreating below its previous 52 week lows in the mid $16 range. And now, this week, JNJ and BAYRY announced a $775M settlement related to the drug Xarelto despite winning all 6 cases that went to trial according to the Dow Jones Newswires likely adding to the further weakness in both stocks.  See below for additional details on the recent purchase.

2019 February Dividend Summary

Two months into the new year and still have yet to make my first purchase for 2019.  Nonetheless, my inactivity has not precluded my accounts from receiving monthly dividend deposits.  February continued the streak of YoY dividend income gains, ringing in a favorable variance of 24%.  Take a look at the breakout of this monthly dividend income below as well as some highlights from my reading of Warren Buffett's latest annual shareholder letter.

2019 January Dividend Summary

Other than collecting dividends in the month, all other investment activity has been on pause for longer than usual.  However, the many purchases that occurred in 2018 resulting in the additional of fresh capital infused into the PIV portfolio and reinvestment of dividends set up 2019 to see a nice YoY gain of 91% despite one particular dividend cut from a very unloved, and understandably so, company.  Take look below for the details of last months dividend income.

2018 December Dividend Summary

I have been really excited to compose this blog entry to not only report December's dividend income, but to also look back on the YTD activity as a whole compared to last year and also document where the portfolio stands at the of 2018 going into 2019.  Without further ado, let's take a look at how year in dividends came to close.